24HR UK: +44 (0)20 3794 3076 Singapore: +65 6221 8568 Shanghai: +86 150 0024334
24HR UK: +44 (0)20 3794 3076 Singapore: +65 6221 8568 Shanghai: +86 150 0024334
Solis Marine Consultants
Temple Chambers
3-7 Temple Avenue
London
EC4Y 0DA
T: +44 (0)20 3794 3076
Nigel is the Solis Marine Chairman and brings to the Group a significant amount of executive and senior management level experience gained over more than 30 years within the marine consulting and offshore energy sectors. He is primarily responsible for assisting and advising the Partners and members of the senior management team on all strategic matters and for providing support to the implementation of the Group’s plans for growth.
Nigel was previously the Managing Director of a leading Marine Consultant and Surveyors where he led the sale of the business before overseeing a period of growth, introducing new service lines to the business to complement the traditional core activities. He was also previously Group Finance Director at a private equity backed multi-disciplinary Marine and Offshore Engineering Consultancy, and he has held the position of Strategic Director for the Technical Services Division of a leading UK listed shipping services group.
Nigel has a BA(Hons) degree in Business and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.
M: +44 (0) 7801 920643
Master Mariner STCW II/2.1
Member of the Lloyd’s panel of Special Casualty Representatives (SCR)
Younger Brother of London Trinity House
Younger Brother - Assistant to the Board of Hull Trinity House
Liveryman of the Honourable Company of Master Mariners
Associate Fellow of the Nautical Institute
John is the co-founder and Senior Partner of Solis Marine, also a master mariner and Younger Brother of London Trinity House, having substantial experience in command and as a first class pilot in the UK. He has acted as a nautical assessor to the High Court of Hong Kong and given expert evidence in London Arbitrations and Court, also in Court in Ireland, Singapore, Hong Kong, Canada, Indonesia and Israel, during criminal and civil cases. He has provided expert reports on collisions, groundings, unsafe ports and berths, pilotage, use of tugs and maneuvering issues, seaworthiness, cargo loss, shift and stowage, personal injury and death, pollution incidents, fouling of submarine pipelines and cables and performance claims due to bad weather.
As well as acting as SCR he has also attended a number of high profile and politically sensitive salvage and wreck removals in Europe, Canada, South America, China, Philippines and Indonesia. During these operations he has been heavily involved from the initial preparation of the tenders through the oil, pollutants and cargo removal and storage to attendance during the clearance of the wreck site.
John was also a consultant mariner, based in London, for a leading firm of international marine consultants which included establishing and running the Hong Kong office as director where he built up a busy base. After returning to London he resumed his former role and became a director.
As a pilot on the River Humber in the UK, John has manoeuvred and anchored all types of vessels, including cape size and panamax bulk carriers and tankers through narrow channels to terminals in a river having a large tidal range and strong currents. Passage planning included the calculation of minimum depths for transit and under keel clearance, tug type and allocation followed by conducting vessels in and out of river berths and enclosed docks in all states of weather and tide. He has also undertaken pilotage of vessels over 300,000 tones deadweight to FPSOs and SPMs.
Command experience includes ocean towage and salvage in West Africa and extensive towage and anchor handling in all sectors of the North Sea, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and West Africa. Tows included disabled vessels, semi-submersible and jack-up rigs and all types of barges for the offshore sector. These operations involved carrying out own pilotage and river transits in many modern and undeveloped ports in the regions of operation.
John was also a contracts manager for a dredging operator undertaking pre and post dredge hydrographic surveys, during maintenance dredging projects in ports around the UK. This followed experience as a watch keeping officer trading worldwide on refrigerated cargo, general cargo carrying break bulk, container and bulk cargoes.
T: +44 (0)20 3794 3076
M: +44 (0)7891 445599
Solis CV - John Simpson (pdf)
DownloadClass One Marine Engineer STCW III/2
Chartered Engineer and Chartered Marine Engineer
Fellow of the Institute of Marine Engineering Science and Technology
Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers
Chris is a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and Fellow of the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology. Having served at sea and worked ashore in other technical roles, he first entered marine consultancy in 2008, and progressed to heading the UK marine engineering department of another leading marine consultancy. Chris joined Solis Marine Consultants in July 2021.
His surveying and consultancy experience includes main and auxiliary machinery failure and damage investigations, collision damages, bunker disputes, ship’s crane damages, fires and explosions, salvage and wreck removal. He applies a forensic, open-minded and balanced approach to his investigative work, with health, safety, environmental and human elements as other key considerations. Chris has attended mediation and given expert evidence at arbitration and in court.
At sea, he served on numerous cruise vessels, ro-ro’s, tugs and a dredger. He achieved his Class One Certificate of Competency (Motor) and has a broad experience of diesel, steam and diesel/steam electric propulsion systems and auxiliaries.
Other shore-based experience have included the commissioning of power generation and prime mover control systems, including gas turbines and dual fuel engines. He has also been involved in new-build, state-of-the-art environmental systems design, and in the development, trials and implementation of environmentally acceptable lubricants and hydraulic fluids.
Through his consultancy, he continues to be engaged with the environmental aspects of shipping, including through compliance surveys and other related matters, such as pollution investigations and discretionary claims.
T: +44 (0) 20 3794 3076
M: +44 (0) 7795 164066
Solis CV - Chris Gascoigne (pdf)
DownloadUniversity of Strathclyde & University of Glasgow
Master of Engineering in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering with merit 2009
Member of Royal Institution of Naval Architects 2016
Chartered Engineer (UK) 2017
Duncan is the Head of Naval Architecture Services providing consultancy to marine and offshore clients focusing on hydrostatic stability and strength analysis, casualty management and project risk management, and AIS and VDR investigations into shipping incidents.
In his previous role as a surveyor, at a leading IACS classification society, he was involved in vessel surveys including annual, intermediate and special surveys and various damage surveys as well as equipment certification. Prior to working as a surveyor Duncan has worked as a naval architect for various companies where he has been involved in many projects ranging from new build plan approval, stability analysis, damage inspection, repair specification and supervision, vessel modifications and strength analysis.
Duncan has also worked extensively with the analysis of AIS and VDR data to
provide visual representations of vessel movements for use in collision, casualty and traffic analyses.
T: +44 (0) 20 3794 3076
M: +44 (0) 7775 600688
Solis CV - Duncan Campbell (pdf)
DownloadMaster Mariner STCW ll/2 unlimited
University of Stirling BA Tertiary Education 2011
University of London (QM & UCL) Master of Laws, Maritime Law 2020
Cate is a Master Mariner with more than 35 years’ experience of the maritime industry.
Significant seagoing experience has been gained on a wide variety of vessels from container, reefer and product carriers on worldwide trading routes, also Ro-Pax and High-Speed Craft (HSC) and AHTS. As a lecturer at a UK nautical college, Cate provided training for UK Certificates of Competency from Deck Cadets through to Master and successfully completed a BA in Tertiary Education.
Experience was also gained in New Zealand where Cate worked for the Flag State which involved accident investigation into navigational incidents including fires, groundings, failure of mechanical and cargo equipment, injuries and fatalities. She also took part in Port and Flag State Control inspections. During this period, she completed Lead Auditor Training for ISO 9001:2008 and ISM, also attending the 5th General training course on Port State Control for Port State Control Officers in the Asia-Pacific Region (Tokyo MoU) and gained further experience by being involved with an exchange program with AMSA.
After returning to the UK, Cate became an Examiner of Master and Mates, and also focused on oversight of UK approved education centres and training for seafarers. This included attending IMO meetings on behalf of the UK, and the issue of Safe Manning Documents and SMD exemptions. Technical and operational advice was also provided to IMO, seafarers and industry.
Cate has completed her Master of Laws from the University of London having studied modules for Admiralty Law, International Law of the Sea, Marine Insurance, and Corporate Governance and compliance.
T: +44 (0) 20 3794 3076
M: +44 (0) 7909 672532
Solis CV - Cate Heil (docx)
DownloadMaster Mariner STCW II/2.1
Associate Fellow of the Nautical Institute
Lead Auditor (ISO 9001, ISM, ISPS)
Member of the Society of Consulting Marine Engineers and Ship Surveyors
Paul brings many years of experience as master of panamax, handymax, and handysize bulk carriers and ship management ashore. Cargo specialisation has included carriage of ores, coal, grain, steel products, timber and forestry products, container, cement, cars and trailers, project cargoes and heavy lifts.
Paul has given expert oral evidence in the High Courts of London and Hong Kong and during arbitration tribunals in London, Hong Kong and Singapore. He has also acted as a nautical assessor to the High Court of Hong Kong.
As a marine consultant, Paul has spent time in the London market as well as a number of years in Hong Kong as director of a busy office for an international firm of consultants. Instructions have taken him to all parts of Europe, Africa, Indian Sub-Continent and Asia for site attendances involving many types of marine incidents.
Paul has prepared expert reports and advice on issues relating to bulk and break-bulk cargoes including liquefaction incidents, unsafe port/berth claims and unseaworthiness. He has also investigated groundings, collisions, ISM, ISPS and navigation issues.
Paul has also carried out Hull and Machinery and condition surveys on a wide variety of vessel types.
T: +44 (0) 20 3794 3076
M: +44 (0) 7838 218994
Solis CV - Paul Walton (pdf)
DownloadJohn is a consultant marine engineer with over 50 years of experience gained at sea and ashore. A steam and motor chief engineer, he has also provided expert reports in a number of machinery claims and given expert evidence in arbitration.
John has carried out investigations on behalf of insurers and investigated breakdowns and equipment failure on all types of vessels.
His seagoing experience, from junior to chief engineer, was on general cargo, container vessels and chemical tankers. He then became an engineering superintendent of jack-up and semi-submersible offshore drilling units and drill ships, working out of Chile, Brazil, Singapore and the North Sea (UK).
John later became a surveyor and loss adjuster undertaking energy and offshore related claims for a fully owned subsidiary of The Salvage Association. More recently John has worked as a surveyor with the Salvage Association, renamed BMT Marine & Offshore Surveys which became part of the Braemar Technical Services group.
T: +44 (0) 20 3794 3076
M: +44 (0) 7821 124417
Solis CV - John Boyd (pdf)
DownloadMaster Mariner STCW II/2.1
Society of Offshore Marine Warranty Surveyors No. 0209. Oil & Gas / Project Cargo
Paul is a master mariner with extensive experience and has spent over 17 years as a Marine Warranty Surveyor (MWS) and consultant within the oil and gas industry working with oil majors. He joined Solis Marine Consultants in January 2021 after being based in the Middle East with a major international marine consultancy. Much of that work was with oil and gas projects which required attendances worldwide. As a project leader, Paul provides management and full oversight of maritime projects in all the areas of his expertise which included many vessel surveys.
Paul’s principal activities concerned the provision of MWS services for large onshore and offshore energy projects. Typically, this required the review of all marine related procedures and attendances both onshore and offshore to approve and witness critical operations as outlined below.
Paul has acted as the representative of insurers and insured interests on several high-profile wreck removal projects including ‘CP VALOUR’, ‘SIERRA NAVA’ and ‘COSTA CONCORDIA’.
Paul also served as a first class pilot in the rivers Humber, Trent and Ouse in the UK where he manoeuvred all types of vessels to river berths and docks in all weather conditions and tidal currents with and without tugs. That work also involved transiting narrow channels with minimum under keel clearance when necessary.
As a deck officer he gained experience on anchor handling vessels, dredgers, reefers, Ro-Ro’s and product carriers.
T: +44 (0) 20 3794 3076
Solis CV - Paul Bryan (pdf)
Download
Mark is a senior maritime civil engineer who specialises in providing consultancy services to P&I Clubs, insurers, lawyers, ship owners and managers, port and terminal owners and operators.
Mark’s principal activities concern the inspection of damages to maritime and marine structures and mechanical handling equipment on a worldwide basis. He provides advice on causation, the nature and extent of damage, methods of repair and quantum, review of business interruption and loss of use together with providing engineering expertise including liaison with contractors and co-ordination of repairs works.
In addition to the investigation of damages to ports and harbours Mark has extensive experience of investigation of storm and other damages to marinas worldwide.
Mark has specialist experience in unsafe port and berth investigations and has prepared expert reports in respect of unsafe ports and berths for High Court and Arbitration proceedings and has given expert evidence in the High Court in London, the Appeal Court in Bergen, Norway and High Court in Cape Town, South Africa.
Mark also has specialist experience in seabed remediation following vessel groundings and wreck removals including preparation of the ITT, selection of contractors, contract negotiation and management and supervision of the works.
Since 2001, Mark has worked for international marine consultancies in senior positions. Prior to that, he gained more than a decade of specialist experience in the design and construction of major international multi-disciplinary projects such as ports and harbours, tank farms, oil import and export facilities, marinas, immersed tube road tunnels. Those operations also included design, site supervision and management.
His experience includes:
Mark Ball’s services are provided by Integra Technical Services Limited.
T: +44 (0) 20 3794 3076
M: +44 (0) 7384 110567
Solis CV - Mark Ball (pdf)
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